Fuse for mines.



ITED STATES P LOUIS LHEURE, OE PARIS, FRANCE.

FUSE FOR MINES.

To all whom it mcy concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS LHEURE, citizen of France, residing at Paris, France, vhave inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Fuses for Mines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to fuses for mines or thelike. v

The filling of fuses with explosives of small density presents very considerable difliculties but by means of the fuse which forms the object of the present invention a system of filling or charging is attained which is very easy and very certain 'the invention being based on the substitution of either trinitrotoluene or trinitrobenzene for the explosives usually employed.

In the accompanying drawingthe improved fuse for mines 1s shown in a perspective view, one end being shown in cross section.

The mode of. manufacturejconsists in lilling with melted nitrated hydrocarbon of the aromatic series, in particular with trinitrotoluene b a tube of lead or of tin a of suitable internal diameter and of reducing the tube afterwards to the final diameter desired, by successive drawing operations in a rolling mill or a draw-plate after thecooling of the explosives. The fuse thus obtained possesses the property of exploding under the action of a detonator of 1.50, grains of ful- `minate of mercury, and of transmittingv the explosion with velocitieslof 5000 and 6.000v meters per second. This property offtrans# mitting the explosion with great velocities is retained even with small diameters. ,The

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed January 27, 1905. Serial No. 242,942.

Patented March 17, v190s.

tubes have been made as small as 2 millimeters external diameter, thus formingin 'effect detonating wires in which the velocity of the explosion has` been about 400() meters.

The various ordinary modes of ignition (other than the fulminate detonator) articularly violent shocks or blows and friction, are without action on the detonating tubes of trinitrotoluene. tubes burn quietly without scattering or decre'pitating. They Y are therefore devices which are susceptible of being handled with almost complete security. They may be employed either for effecting the simultaneous detonation of several explosive charges or for insuring the ignition of a single 'isolated explosive charge. Moreover the filling oftrinitrotoluene may be replaced by trinitrobenzene, asy already indicated.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same ,is to be performed, I declare that what Iclaim is:

An improved method for the manufacture of fuses for mines consisting in melting trinitrotoluene, in filling the melted trinitrotoluen'e into a tubeand in drawing out the filled tube to the required length in reducing its diameter, substantially as set forth.

In a lighted irethe vnesses.

-LOUIS LHEURE.

Witnesses JOHN BAKER, YALFRED Fam'l 

